Perioperative obstetric anaesthesia — haemorrhage and coagulation

Abstract

In the United Kingdom a national hospital service is freely available to all citizens. Apart from a small number who deliver at home, virtually all the 700,000 women who deliver each year do so in public hospitals. Private maternity units are unknown outside London. Blood banks, coagulation laboratories and intensive care facilities are often available on site. This may have some significance for the way that haemorrhage is managed in the UK.